Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus:Flavian Signature Edition (45 page)

There are three “pieces” to the puzzle. One of these is the
Testimonium Flavianum
, which is the name scholars have given to Josephus’ one and only, very short description of the “Christ.” The other two “pieces” of the puzzle are the two tales that immediately follow the
Testimonium.

To date, scholars have not recognized that the
Testimonium
and the two tales that follow it create a puzzle, simply because they have failed to see that the three tales must have been created as an interrelated set—that is, they were created in direct relationship to one another. Once this proposition is understood, it becomes clear that they form a puzzle whose solution is also obvious.

Here is the
Testimonium
and the two odd tales that follow it.

Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ.

And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him did not at first forsake him, for he appeared to them alive the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.

About the same time also another sad calamity put the Jews into disorder, and certain shameful practices happened about the temple of Isis that was at Rome. I will now first take notice of the wicked attempt about the temple of Isis, and will then give an account of the Jewish affairs.

There was at Rome a woman whose name was Paulina; one who, on account of the dignity of her ancestors, and by the regular conduct of a virtuous life, had a great reputation: she was also very rich; and although she was of a beautiful countenance, and in that flower of her age wherein women are the most gay, yet did she lead a life of great modesty. She was married to Saturninus, one that was every way answerable to her in an excellent character.

Decius Mundus fell in love with this woman. He was a man very high in the equestrian order; and as she was of too great dignity to be caught by presents, and had already rejected them, though they had been sent in great abundance, he was still more inflamed with love to her, insomuch that he promised to give her two hundred thousand Attic drachmae for one night’s lodging;

and when this would not prevail upon her, and he was not able to bear this misfortune in his amours, he thought it the best way to famish himself to death for want of food, on account of Paulina’s sad refusal; and he determined with himself to die after such a manner, and he went on with his purpose accordingly.

Now Mundus had a freed-woman, who had been made free by his father, whose name was Ide, one skillful in all sorts of mischief. This woman was very much grieved at the young man’s resolution to kill himself, (for he did not conceal his intentions to destroy himself from others,) and came to him, and encouraged him by her discourse, and made him to hope, by some promises she gave him, that he might obtain a night’s lodging with Paulina;

and when he joyfully hearkened to her entreaty, she said she wanted no more than fifty thousand drachmae for the entrapping of the woman. So when she had encouraged the young man, and gotten as much money as she required, she did not take the same methods as had been taken before, because she perceived that the woman was by no means to be tempted by money; but as she knew that she was very much given to the worship of the goddess Isis, she devised the following stratagem:

She went to some of Isis’ priests, and upon the strongest assurances [of concealment], she persuaded them by words, but chiefly by the offer of money, of twenty-five thousand drachmae in hand, and as much more when the thing had taken effect; and told them the passion of the young man, and persuaded them to use all means possible to beguile the woman.

So they were drawn in to promise so to do, by that large sum of gold they were to have. Accordingly, the oldest of them went immediately to Paulina; and upon his admittance, he desired to speak with her by herself. When that was granted him, he told her that he was sent by the god Anubis, who was fallen in love with her, and enjoined her to come to him.

Upon this she took the message very kindly, and valued herself greatly upon this condescension of Anubis, and told her husband that she had a message sent her, and was to sup and lie with Anubis; so he agreed to her acceptance of the offer, as fully satisfied with the chastity of his wife.

Accordingly, she went to the temple, and after she had supped there, and it was the hour to go to sleep, the priest shut the doors of the temple, when, in the holy part of it, the lights were also put out. Then did Mundus leap out, (for he was hidden therein,) and did not fail of enjoying her, who was at his service all the night long, as supposing he was the god;

and when he was gone away, which was before those priests who knew nothing of this stratagem were stirring, Paulina came early to her husband, and told him how the god Anubis had appeared to her. Among her friends, also, she declared how great a value she put upon this favor,

who partly disbelieved the thing, when they reflected on its nature, and partly were amazed at it, as having no pretense for not believing it, when they considered the modesty and the dignity of the person.

But now, on the third day after what had been done, Mundus met Paulina, and said, “Nay, Paulina, thou hast saved me two hundred thousand drachmae, which sum thou mightest have added to thy own family; yet hast thou not failed to be at my service in the manner I invited thee. As for the reproaches thou hast laid upon Mundus, I value not the business of names; but I rejoice in the pleasure I reaped by what I did, while I took to myself the name of Anubis.”

When he had said this, he went his way. But now she began to come to the sense of the grossness of what she had done, and rent her garments, and told her husband of the horrid nature of the wicked contrivance and prayed him not to neglect to assist her in this case. So he discovered the fact to the emperor;

whereupon Tiberius inquired into the matter thoroughly by examining the priests about it, and ordered them to be crucified, as well as Ide, who was the occasion of their perdition, and who had contrived the whole matter, which was so injurious to the woman. He also demolished the temple of Isis, and gave order that her statue should be thrown into the river Tiber;

while he only banished Mundus, but did no more to him, because he supposed that what crime he had committed was done out of the passion of love. And these were the circumstances which concerned the temple of Isis, and the injuries occasioned by her priests. –– I now return to the relation of what happened about this time to the Jews at Rome, as I formerly told you I would.

There was a man who was a Jew, but he had been driven away from his own country by an accusation laid against him for transgressing their laws, and by the fear he was under of punishment for the same; but in all respects a wicked man. He, then living at Rome, professed to instruct men in the wisdom of the laws of Moses.

He procured also three other men, entirely of the same character with himself, to be his partners. These men persuaded Fulvia, a woman of great dignity, and one that had embraced the Jewish religion, to send purple and gold to the temple at Jerusalem; and when they had gotten them, they employed them for their own uses, and spent the money themselves, on which account it was that they at first required it of her.

Whereupon Tiberius, who had been informed of the thing by Saturninus, the husband of Fulvia, who desired inquiry might be made about it, ordered all the Jews to be banished out of Rome;

at which time the consuls listed four thousand men out of them, and sent them to the island Sardinia; but punished a greater number of them, who were unwilling to become soldiers, on account of keeping the laws of their forefathers. Thus were these Jews banished out of the city by the wickedness of four men.
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First, it should be noted that the two tales that follow the
Testimonium
are oddly tangential from the narration Josephus has been engaged in up to this point, which describes Pontius Pilates’ military activity in Judea. They stand out both because of their location, Rome, as well as their lightweight, ribald substance.

Josephus is here using an unusual Judaic literary structure called “pedimental composition,” in which the different passages form columns of a temple. Josephus uses a particular pedimental style of composition in which three pillars form a literary temple.
¹⁵³
The two side columns are small; both concern issues having to do with the Jews, and the left-hand column is the famous passage about Christ. Unfortunately, scholars have focused on the left-hand passage, while ignoring the overall literary composition and the overall rhetorical structure, which indicates that the focus of attention should be on the central column.

It was another clever stroke for Josephus to use a temple-like literary structure to describe an account of a temple. This pedimental structure with the focus on the central passage similarly is used in the Book of Leviticus in which chapters 18 and 20 form the side columns and chapter 19 forms the central column of a literary temple.

Moreover, there is a claim within the tales that is verifiably false. The temple of Isis was not destroyed during this era, a fact that Josephus was aware of. He wrote that Vespasian and Titus had spent the night before the celebration of the completion of the Judaic war at the temple of Isis.
¹⁵⁴
This led me to question why Josephus knowingly records an obvious spoof as history.

To begin this analysis, I want to point out what I understand about the name of the protagonist in the first and longer tale,
Decius Mundus
.
Mundus
is the Latin word for “world,” or “earth.” The name Decius Mundus, I believe, is a pun on Decius Mus, a name given to both a father and son, who were among Rome’s greatest military heroes. Both father and son had “devoted” (
devotio
) themselves; that is to say, in the midst of fierce battles they had sacrificed themselves. The
devotio
was a religious ritual of the Roman army that was made to all gods, known and unknown, Roman and enemy. One of its purposes was to induce the gods of the enemy to defect to the Roman side of a conflict. As I have mentioned, the Romans felt that they were divinely inspired to conquer. By the beginning of the first century C.E., Rome had for hundreds of years fought and conquered not only their enemies, but also the gods of their enemies. The
devotio
was a technique for neutralizing their enemies’ gods.

In the ritual, one Roman, together with the legions of the enemy, would be “devoted” to the gods. In effect, one Roman would sacrifice himself for the good of the many. Thus, Decius Mus offered himself as a sacrifice to all the gods, agreeing to give up his life in exchange for their assistance in taking the enemy along with him to the underworld.

At first both armies fought with equal strength and equal determination. After a time the Roman hastati on the left, unable to withstand the insistency of the Latins, retired behind the principes. During the temporary confusion created by this movement, Decius exclaimed in a loud voice to M. Valerius: “Valerius, we need the help of the gods! Come now, you are a state pontiff of the Roman people—dictate the formula whereby I may devote myself to save the legions …

“ … Janus, Jupiter, Father Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, New Gods, Native Gods, deities to whom belongs the power over us and over our foes, and ye, too, Divine Manes, I pray to you, I do you reverence, I crave your grace and favour that you will bless the Roman People, the Quirites, with power and victory, and visit the enemies of the Roman People, the Quirites, with fear and dread and death. In like manner as I have uttered this prayer so do I now on behalf of the common-wealth of the Quirites, on behalf of the army, the legions, the auxiliaries of the Roman People, the Quirites, devote the legions and auxiliaries of the enemy, together with myself to the Divine Manes and to Earth.”

… To those who watched him in both armies, he appeared something awful and superhuman, as though sent from heaven to expiate and appease all the anger of the gods and to avert destruction from his people and bring it on their enemies. All the dread and terror which he carried with him threw the front ranks of the Latins into confusion which soon spread throughout the entire army. This was most evident, for wherever his horse carried him they were paralyzed as though struck by some death-dealing star; but when he fell, overwhelmed with darts, the Latin cohorts, in a state of perfect consternation, fled from the spot and left a large space clear. The Romans, on the other hand, freed from all religious fears, pressed forward.
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